Wheaton College's Automated Parallel Sky Survey Project

Abstract

Advances in optics, computer technology and CCD imaging are fueling a
revolution in small scale Astronomy. Wheaton College, a small liberal
arts college in south eastern Massachusetts is doing its part to
participate in this revolution by assembling our own automated
observatory.
Without the means of a large endowment, corporate sponsorship, or
large research grants, we have been trying to use off the shelf
technology to assemble, and automate a computer controlled sky survey
system. Once operational, we will be able to search make meaningful
contributions to Astronomy. We plant to start by looking for near
earth asteroids, and/or super novae in our galaxy, and in distant
galaxies.
In the talk I will give you a crash course in telescope optics and
CCD astronomy. Then I'll walk you through our goals and progress to
date,finishing with a wish list for incremental improvements in the
avaiable technology.